This morning, as I was scrolling through my YouTube feed, I came across this story from the channel ‘ Invisible People.’
One of the commenters said that if something like this happened to them it would be their own fault for not saving enough for their own retirement. This comment just made me so sad. Sad that we humans so often immediately imagine the worst of each other.
The truth is a lot of people in this day and age simply can’t save. They don’t bring in a living wage to cover their immediate expenses let alone extra to put into a savings account.
Some of these people may have been carers for family members during much of their adult lives and were therefore unable to be in paid employment long enough to save an adequate pension.
Perhaps they were left disabled through illness or injury and therefore couldn’t work enough to save.
You never know what people’s circumstances may be. Always assume the best. Most people are trying their best.
Over the last twenty years in the UK, and perhaps the US as well, the cost of living has risen and the average salary has not risen with it.
Life is different than it was years ago. I remember when an average one wage family could afford a decent home, car and an annual holiday as well as save towards retirement etc… These days people often work more than one job and still can’t pay for those things.
And even if some people simply don’t make it in life, simply can’t make it because of trauma or coming out of abusive situations, or the state of their mental/ spiritual health, or limited ability, we need to be compassionate. Some people can’t just be fixed at the click of our fingers. Because of past trauma or abuse, or mental/ spiritual health or limited abilities, some people actually need continual help and support to hobble through their lives. They simply cannot do it on there own. And in a compassionate society that should be okay. We should be there for them.
In fact, if our society was more compassionate and valued the human soul more than the bottom line, perhaps we wouldn’t have so many casualty’s of the system. Perhaps, we wouldn’t have so many humans living in their cars in the first place.
This is unbearably sad. Everything you've written is spot on --- here, in the little southern Ontario town where we live, every week the local paper has an article about the lack of affordable housing and the way landlords are displacing elderly/disabled tenants who *did* have affordable rents under some vague legislation about doing renovations and then charging more -- they call it 'renovictions'. It's shocking. A truly compassionate, soul-centered society would not allow this.
ReplyDeleteThat is so sad. I always believe that a society can be judged on how it treats its most vulnerable members.
DeleteSimilar situation here. Rents are so high and unaffordable for many. Landlords buy up multiple properties either for rental or as in places like Cornwall, for holiday homes until there are hardly any affordable houses left for the people that have lived there for generations.
The rented properties are often unfit and not maintained properly either. Everyone deserves adequate shelter and a safe place to call home.